Passive

In passive sentences, the action, event or process is more important than who or what does the action.:

Fruit is picked in the autumn.

If we want to mention the 'person doing the action', we use by:

I was robbed last night by a man in a dark jacket.

Passive is also used when we do not know who or what does the action.

A bike was stolen from the school last night.

In journalism and science, the passive is also commonly used to sound more formal and objective.

It was reported that a new vaccine has been developed for the virus.

Forms

Use the form to be to go from active to passive plus the past participle

  • present simple: is made in China
  • present continuous: is being flown to China.
  • past simple: was taken to China
  • past continuous: was being seen in China
  • present perfect: has been eaten in China
  • past perfect: had been developed in China
  • be going to: is going to be researched in China
  • will: will be moved to China.
  • future perfect: will have been discovered in China
  • present/future modal: may be presented in China
  • past modal: must have been eradicated in China
  • Negative: It wasn't made in China.
  • Question: Was it made in China?
Note: verbs that do not take an object (e.g. arrive) do not have a passive form:

(NOT CORRECT) She was arrived.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Correct the mistakes in the text below.

Exercise 2

Rewrite the sentences below to make them more formal, beginning with the words and phrases in bold.

Linking words
Modal verbs basic forms